Sexton Jr., Donald J. (compiler). Signals Intelligence in World War II: A Research Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.

163 pages
ISBN 0-313-28304-4

Preface; Acknowledgments; Acronyms and Abbreviations; Signals Intelligence Chronology; Introduction; author index; subject index.

Eighteenth in the "Bibliographies of Battles and Leaders" series (which also includes The Normandy Campaign, Dangerous Sky (the Battle of Britain), and The War in North Africa among others), Sexton's bibliographical compilation is an exceedingly useful tool for anyone wishing to read or research the rapidly growing literature of signals/communications intelligence. Sexton uses the terms interchangeably and defines them as "the ability to intercept, decipher and read encoded or enciphered texts transmitted by another and to analyze information extracted from them, as well as to interpret the flow of communications."

The hundreds of books and articles contained within the bibliography are carefully arranged by subject ("Reference Works and Research Guides," "General and Introductory Works," "Signals Intelligence: General and Theoretical," and "Signals Intelligence: Strategy and Operations") and within those subjects by sub-headings (such as "The War in Western Europe," "The Battle of the Atlantic," "The War in East Asia and the Pacific," etc). Items will often appear under more than one subject area or sub-heading. Within the sub-headings the material is arranged alphabetically by author and cross-references to related items.

In addition to the usual bibliographic data (author, title, publisher, city and date of publication), Sexton provides a descriptive paragraph which can be highly intriguing in and of itself.

Jukes, Geoff. "The Soviets and Ultra;" "More on the Soviets and Ultra." Intelligence and National Security, III (April 1988): 233-247; IV (April 1989): 374-384.

Jukes speculates that Russian offensive performance after Stalingrad may have been due to decryption of German radio (ENIGMA) traffic. A provocative thesis that remains to be proved. See also [entries] nos. 505 and 683.

Very valuable resource for researchers, marred only by its rather high price.

In print and available from mail order booksellers and local bookstores, or directly from Greenwood Press for $69.50.

Thanks to Greenwood Press for providing this review copy.